Mizo students to set up infiltration gates along Mizoram-Assam border

Aizawl: Going in the line of its counterparts in Meghalaya and other northeastern states, Mizoram’s most influential student body, the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) or Mizo Students’ Federation has decided to set up infiltration check gates along the Mizoram-Assam border to prevent influx of Bangladeshi foreigners from neighbouring Assam.

The decision for setting up infiltration check gates was taken at the meeting of MZP on Thursday after the government failed to take any security measure within a stipulated time, MZP president L. Ramdinliana Renthlei told The Mizoram Post.

He said that infiltration check gates will be set up in Bairabi town, Vairengte and Saiphai villages along the Mizoram-Assam boundaries.

Earlier the student body had asked the state government to beef up security along the Mizoram-Assam border and set August 15 deadline failing which it will conduct ILP raid across the state and set up infiltration check gates along the boundaries to curb illegal influx from Assam.

Denouncing the government’s claim that no Bangladeshi infiltrators have entered Mizoram after the publication of National Register of Citizens(NRC) draft list in Assam, Renthlei said they have received report from some quarters that a sizeable number of Bangladeshi foreigners, whose name have been found missing in the NRC list, have entered Mizoram recently.

He said that 3,596 Inner Line Permits (ILP) were newly issued to non-tribal from Vairengte police check gate between 1 and 15 August.

Renthlei also told this correspondent that activists of MZP on Friday raided some localities of Aizawl and apprehended at least 23 people for failing to posses valid ILP by violatingEastern Bengal Frontier Regulation, 1873.

He said that some of the ILP violators apprehended on Friday did not have theri names in the NRC draft.

They were handed to law enforcement agency to be deported to their respective places, he added.

The student leader said that they (MZP) have re-appealed to the state government to tighten security along the Mizoram-Assam border and not issue ILP to those, who failed to make in the NRC draft list.

The MZP also instructed all its sub-headquarters and branches along the Mizoram-Assam boundary to step vigil to thwart entry of illegal migrants and foreigners from neighbouring states.

According to Renthlei, MZP functionaries on Friday intercepted vehicles at Vairengte on the Mizoram-Assam border and prevented many non-tribal, who failed to produce ILP, from entering Mizoram.

He added that ILP drive would be carried out by the student body across the state.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the student body blamed Mizoram Chakma Students Union (MCSU) for renewing a PIL challenging State Medical & Technical Entrance Examination (SMATEE) 2016 following which the Gauhati High Court has recently issued suspend order which led to the postponement of the ongoing counseling class for recruitment of indigenous students for medical courses under the central pool quota for indefinite period. The PIL was already dismissed by the high court last year.

Alleging that the MCSU was intentionally disturbing the indigenous students, MZP said that the action of Chakma student body in reviving the ILP was an insult to the Mizo community.

It reiterated that the Chakma foreigners could not share equal rights and privileges with the indigenous students under category-I.